


The Family of Cold and Dark

by ab2fsycho



Series: Why is Tea Always Gone [12]
Category: Guardians of Childhood - William Joyce, Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: M/M, and another series comes to an end, cuter than the last one, i think it's a cute end
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-13
Updated: 2013-12-13
Packaged: 2018-01-04 13:36:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,990
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1081627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ab2fsycho/pseuds/ab2fsycho
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Onna makes a deal with Rin that he's not sure he'll be able to uphold.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Family of Cold and Dark

**Author's Note:**

  * For [RonnieSilverlake](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RonnieSilverlake/gifts).



> For the lovely Ronnie. Thank you for everything, darling.

“Why don’t you ever sleep?”

The question wouldn’t have bothered Rin coming from anyone else, but it was Onna who asked him. Onna, who hadn’t been quite the same since saving a boy from two would-be predators. Onna, who he used to be able to make laugh at the drop of a hat and who now pondered the things she would hear until she was too tired to think anymore. Rin had tried to keep his past from her, and in his mind that question dredged up too many bad memories. “I just don’t,” was his answer.

“Have you ever tried?” she asked.

“I’ve never felt the desire to.” In a way, that was a lie. He’d needed rest on several occasions, but couldn’t bring himself to close his eyes. He got by just fine simply by sitting in dark spaces and watching people walk past, unaware of their voyeur.

“You’re afraid to,” Onna pointed out.

“No,” he said a little too quickly. “No, I’m not afraid to sleep.”

“You’re afraid of what you’ll see.” He didn’t answer her. She looked at him, her iridescent gaze currently unfiltered, her colored glasses resting on a snow pile that served as a bedside table. She often took them off before going to sleep herself. He had a tendency to watch her as she slept, in the event she suffered from nightmares like Jack. Jack had fewer nightmares the longer he stayed with Pitch, which didn’t seem rather conducive to Pitch’s or Rin’s powers. She reached for his face, her ungloved hand leaving trails of ice on his cheek as she turned his head to face her. “I sense fear too, and I know that’s what you’re afraid of. You’re afraid of what you’ll find when you close your eyes.”

“Why are you so interested in my sleeping habits? Or lack thereof?” He wanted desperately not to talk about this.

“Because you being afraid of your own head is just as productive as me continuing to be afraid of who my ice will affect.”

He blinked. “Why must you make sense? Stop it.”

Despite the seriousness of the topic, she managed a small smile. “Just try.”

“Try to sleep?” The very though unnerved him on a molecular level. She nodded. He stood up, pacing by her frozen bed while running a frantic hand through his frazzled hair. “I can’t! I really can’t sleep!”

“Everyone sleeps, Rin,” she declared. “You just don’t want to.”

“And you know why,” he retorted. She gave him a puzzled look. “Oh,” he thought. No, she really didn’t know what he had to be afraid of. She didn’t know about the centuries of mindlessness and darkness. She didn’t know about the things he’d done to make Pitch distrust him even today. She didn’t know anything about what had made him who he was. She vaguely knew how he’d come into this world. She vaguely knew what he was capable of. Though she didn’t shy away from his razor smile, to say that she wasn’t aware of it would be a gross inaccuracy. Onna knew stigmas surrounding Fearlings and she knew him. She didn’t seem willing to make a connection between the two because for some odd reason, she loved him. He was her brother, and she felt no urge to fear him. He stared at the claws on his hands, his gaze wandering to the ones on his feet. Claws he could never retract. Claws that struck fear into anyone who looked at him. He hardly needed to smile, really. His whole being evoked terror, and she seemed exempt from that. “It’s not that simple,” he elected to tell her.

“If everyone I knew stopped thinking about the complications and obstacles and just did something, I think they’d find that it could be that simple.” He looked at her then. “Just try,” she reiterated.

He almost smiled, because right then and there she sounded a lot like Jack. After all, had Jack taken the time to consider all the consequences of each and every one of his actions, he would’ve never set foot in this lair. There would be no family that ruled the cold and dark. He sighed, somehow knowing that she wouldn’t relent this time. “Would it make you happy?” he asked. It was her turn not to answer, her turn to feel nervous. “Would it make you leave the lair, live and laugh like you used to? Would it make you stop sitting in the same spot for hours, thinking about the things that might happen if you set foot outside or shake hands with one of your own family members who’ve repeated over and over that your ice doesn’t bother them?”

There was a long pause. He could see the gears in her brain working, her brow furrowed just as it always did when she was weighing out her options. “I’ll try if you will,” she finally conceded.

He stared at her, the only person he didn’t insult on a regular basis. She was the only person he fiercely guarded even though she didn’t need it, the only person who looked at him and didn’t have a horrible memory associated with him. She was the only person who cared for him unconditionally and genuinely. Frosty Junk and Nightmare Man cared in their own ways, Jack more than Pitch, but there was always that strain. There was always that caution that had become bearable the longer the family had endured. They were close-knit, but there were still tensions surrounding Rin that only he seemed aware of.

What could it really hurt? If he managed to sleep, what could it really hurt? And he would do just about anything to bring Onna back out of her shell. A year was nothing to immortals, but it was long enough for Rin to miss having his sister genuinely happy.

“I’ll try,” he agreed at long last. 

“You promise?”

He hesitated before answering, “Promise.” He almost caught a glimpse of her old happiness when she curled up on her bed and smiled at him.

After a few more minutes of silence, Onna slept without issue. He lay awake beside her on her bed of snow, the short moments feeling like hours already. Those sparse minutes were all he needed for his fingers to start trembling. He fought the urge to get up and run from the bed, hide in the darkness where he was comfortable. Then he’d only be trading one darkness for another technically. It was the lack of control he feared, he realized. He didn’t want to not be in control of himself. He didn’t want to be without consciousness.

The very thought of floating in a mindless void is what started his whole body trembling. How was Onna not being shaken back awake by his tremors?

“What is troubling you?” came a voice from the shadows. Without getting up, Rin turned his head to see Nightmare Man lingering nearby. Pitch muttered irritably, “I can smell your distress from a mile away.”

Rin bit back on some shitty retort he was going to send at the Boogeyman. Trying to quell his shaking, and almost succeeding, he whispered, “I promised Onna I’d try to sleep.”

Pitch’s brow furrowed, but he didn’t question it. Instead, he jabbed, “It could help with those foul moods you tend to get in.”

Rin glared then. “Yeah, and you could use a decade’s worth of sleeping. Maybe then you’d stop walking around muttering to yourself about whatever’s bothering you that day.”

“Yes, and the muttering is usually a result of the latest headache you’ve given me,” Pitch uttered coolly. Rin wanted to get up and fight at that. Nightmare Man somehow always knew what tone of voice to use to invoke such a reaction in Rin. But he didn’t get up. He kept as still as he possibly could. Pitch looked bored almost instantly as he said, “I’ll leave you to it, then.”

A thought struck the Fearling. “Wait,” Rin said. Nightmare Man stopped, turning back to him curiously. At least, Pitch looked curious over what Rin could possibly want from him. The words threaten to catch in his throat, so he spoke quickly, “Can you put me to sleep?”

Pitch’s lips twisted into a mockery of a grin. “You mean euthanize you? I hardly think that will go unnoticed. Jack will surely miss your presence.”

Rin rolled his eyes. “You know what I mean. Can you force me to sleep?”

Pitch stiffened as he realized Rin was being serious. “You want me to force my will on you?” Rin nodded. Nightmare Man’s eyes narrowed as his shoulders rolled back. Pitch said through a long sigh, “Rin . . . .”

“I promised her,” he whispered harshly. Had his voice been raised, it would’ve come off as a snap. Instead, he wound up sounding desperate. Honestly, Rin didn’t know which was worse.

Despite his plea, Pitch still looked wary of Rin’s request. “You realize what you’re asking me?” Rin was about to reply sarcastically when Pitch continued with, “You’re asking me to make you sleep. You realize what could happen if I make you sleep, correct?”

Nightmares. Rin felt ridiculous for not having thought of that. “You can’t just force me to relax long enough for me to drift off?”

“Are you even capable of drifting off?”

“I don’t know, but I doubt you have any dreamsand on you old man. What other choice do we have?”

Pitch stared at him long and hard, and Rin could almost feel the probing into his senses begin. When Nightmare Man spoke again, Rin didn’t expect the words that came. “I’m waking you up if I sense even the slightest amount of fear.”

Rin narrowed his eyes. “You need fear about as much as I do. Why—?”

“Because it seems that I am incapable of tolerating the fear of those in this family. That even extends to you, you insufferable brat,” Pitch growled. As he stepped forward, Rin could see the trepidation in his movement. The Boogeyman clenched his fists as he approached, pausing beside one of Onna’s bedside snow mounds before reached out a . . . was his hand actually shaking? Pitch hissed, “You’re absolutely certain of this?”

Rin wondered how a hiss could sound so . . . concerned. It wasn’t like Pitch to show this much feeling towards the Fearling. He didn’t even express his anger with Rin’s antics all that much anymore. After years of residing together, they had simply grown used to each other. Granted, both dark beings had mellowed considerably. They weren’t the same people they were when they’d fought against Pillan. Pitch’s tendencies towards violence had dropped dramatically, as had Rin’s. One could say they’d chilled out. Rin probably could’ve laughed at his own bad pun if he wasn’t facing down the last fear he had yet to conquer.

Hardening his resolve, Rin nodded. His limbs began deadening, and he felt him lose complete control over his own body as Pitch forced him into a state of relaxation. It took everything he had not to struggle, but if he could survive Nightmare Man’s influence he could handle sleeping. At least, that’s what he hoped. This was, after all, what he feared most: loss of control. He suspected that’s why, in all the years they’d been stuck in the lair together, Pitch had never forced his will on Rin before. He’d only done it once, and that had been when Rin was still sharing a body with Jack. Rin had asked for that one.

As he was pulled into a state of relaxation, Rin felt his eyes slipping shut. He greeted darkness willingly, the slightest hint of anxiety dancing on the edges of his senses yet blocked out by Pitch’s will.

He’d had no idea what the act falling asleep might actually feel like. When a weight was lifted off his mind and the darkness seemed welcoming instead of threatening, he didn’t think to shake himself awake. He simply . . . fell.



“Hey, I thought you were . . . he’s sleeping?” Jack had started off speaking at his usual volume, but had softened his voice upon finding Pitch lingering beside Onna’s room. His eyes widened as he realized the Snow Girl wasn’t the only one sleeping. Looking at the Nightmare King leaning up against the stone wall, he didn’t know whether to be afraid or elated or . . . he didn’t know. “How?” he asked in a hushed voice as he approached Pitch.

“He asked me to help him sleep,” Pitch answered quietly. “He promised Onna he’d try sleeping.”

“That’s an odd request from her.”

Pitch nodded. “I didn’t pry. I just . . .,” Pitch clamped his mouth shut.

Jack watched him suspiciously, again unsure of how he should feel in this situation. “Just what?” he asked.

“I just wanted to be sure he didn’t have any nightmares. Negative reinforcement would only make him never want to try and fall asleep again, and I suspect Onna—,” he stopped abruptly when Jack touched his hand. “What?”

“You were about to start rambling. I could feel it coming.” That brought a half smile from the Boogeyman. “I came back to make sure Rin hadn’t done something to you and I find out you’ve done something to him. Sera owes me.”

“Owes you?” Pitch tilted his head, confused.

“She’d bet that you’d slid off one of his icy constructions and hit your head hard enough to knock you out.”

Pitch did smile at that. “How are the children?”

“Getting bigger. I thought they’d grow at the same rate as human children, but I was wrong. They still can’t talk, though.” Jack grinned as he thought of Eden and Amber. Eden was already trying to ‘help’ Bunny paint. The young Guardian hesitated to say help mainly because she spent more time painting Amber than anything else. The colors were greatly dulled against the other girl’s black fur, and really only succeeded in coloring Amber’s mood. Amber showed no interest in painting eggs, which really didn’t surprise Jack. Jack whispered, “Amber’s already got a group of insects following her. I think we know whose powers she’s going to inherit. Eden’s still a mystery.”

“What insects?” Pitch asked, and Jack swore his eyes lit up.

“Dragonflies, actually.” Staring back at Onna and Rin, Jack asked, “Do think it’d be safe to leave them so you can see for yourself?”

Pitch hesitated before answering, “I suppose.”

“Wouldn’t want Rin to catch you actually being concerned about him, you know.”

“It’d go straight to his head.” The Nightmare King and winter spirit left the two kids sleeping. “He won’t be a Fearling for much longer.”

“What will he be then?” Jack asked. Pitch facial expression seemed a little too . . . vengeful. “Not a Nightmare Man.”

“Yes,” Pitch said.

“That’s not gonna stop him from calling you Nightmare Man, though.”

“No, but it’ll be harder to take him seriously when he says it.”

Jack wasn’t entirely sure he understood the reasoning behind that statement, but didn’t question it. Pitch’s mind still operated differently than Jack’s, but for the most part he could still interpret his Boogeyman. Their hands remained clasped as they stepped into the shadows and travelled to the Warren.



Rin woke up to Onna staring at him. He barely remembered anything between falling asleep and waking up, which only proved that he’d been afraid of nothing really.

Rubbing his eyes, he grinned at Onna. Somehow the flashing of his razor teeth made her smile and chuckle at him. He’d never felt happier, never heard anything more reassuring than Onna’s laughter. It felt like it had been too long since she’d really laughed, however small the laugh was. Sliding his hand into hers, her ice freezing his hand and running over his sleeves, her smile widened. “You kept your promise,” she uttered.

“Did you think I wouldn’t?” She shook her head. “Guess who has to keep her promise.” She blushed blue, her grin turning shy. His grin widened as he sat up too quickly. “Shit, is my head supposed to spin like this?”

“Yes. You’re moving too fast,” she said, a note of mischief in her tone.

“Too bad,” he said, pulling her to her feet and ignoring the rush to his head. “Let’s go.”

“Where?” she asked, some nervousness creeping into her voice.

“Anywhere. North Pole?” he asked her. Though he could feel her apprehension as if it were her own, she nodded. “Great!” He picked up his rod. “The jolly fat one will be glad to see you.”

“Wait!” she cried, turning to grab her glasses and gloves. After placing the glasses on her face and pocketing the gloves, she took a deep breath. Then she nodded. “Ready.”

“You’re not wearing the gloves?” he asked.

She shook her head. “I won’t need them until I get inside the Workshop.”

“Why do I already feel a snowball fight happening?” Her grin lit up the lair in his opinion. “Let’s make Frosty Junk regret missing the occasion.” She laughed, and he felt lighter than he’d ever been. After the initial head rush, he felt like he could fly. He felt like he could sprint through every shadow. Years of no rest came crashing back to him and suddenly he didn’t know what he’d been so afraid of. He hadn’t been reminded of the void. He hadn’t had dreams of battles long past. He’d woken up stronger, and it seemed that Onna felt just as strong and refreshed as he did. Funny how something so simple could restore such a light in her iridescent eyes. “Remind me to keep more of my promises,” he jested.

With a sharp grin and a rare laugh, they stepped into the shadows together. When they reemerged, there would be a land of wind, snow, and ice waiting to greet them. Though the land darkened sometimes, the shadow of the sun on that icy plane would only succeed in reminding them of home.

**Author's Note:**

> And that concludes this series of requests and such. Should these guys ever return, Onna and Rin will be fully grown. That's slightly depressing. I'll sorely miss everyone in this series.
> 
> Moving on to other things. Got two AUs to write for, so it's not like you guys will be without your blackice/goldenfrost. Looking forward to those. I love you all. Thank you for sticking with me through two series.


End file.
